TWEETS

Appointment Scheduling for On-Demand College Students

According to the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), some 20.5 million students are expected to attend colleges and universities in the U.S. this fall.

As services such as Uber have fueled the on-demand economy and set the bar high in terms of customer experience, students want a technology-savvy academic environment where they have easy access to their class information, academic advisors, professors and campus services—anytime, anywhere.

Many schools are already deploying appointment scheduling, which provides a self-service portal for students to easily schedule a meeting with campus resources at a time that is convenient for them. Students can easily schedule appointments with their academic advisors or professors, which greatly enhances the campus experience for both students and faculty alike. For example, if students want to meet with a professor, being able to schedule an appointment from their mobile device or computer is convenient, especially if they can see the blocks of time the professor has available. At the same time, this makes it easier for the professor as they can see which student is coming to see them and for what class, and be more prepared for the meeting.

What adds to the ease of this experience is that the appointments can be scheduled from any mobile device. So, for the students, access to campus facilities such as the career or health centers is convenient and seamless.

For example, Columbia University and its affiliate, Barnard College, are offering appointment scheduling for student services such as physical and mental health, counseling, massage and more.

As students today become more selective about what school they want to attend, colleges and universities—especially their IT departments—need to step up to the challenge. The age of the on-demand economy has taken a firm hold in higher education. Leading colleges and universities will recognize this trend and provide campus tools and applications that meet the demands of today’s students.

I'm the Product Marketing Manager at TimeTrade. I focus on the customer experience of the product and use our customer learnings to help update our workflows and create materials to help train our users. I also focus on our client facing marketing programs, social media initiatives, and content curation.